Chapter 196: Triumphant Return

"Oh, fuck."

Wang Xin's brow knotted tightly, his mood sinking into deep frustration.

"I'm not saying you've got reason to complain—didn't your boss earlier want to pull people into the village? Now I've gone and recruited over a dozen for you: sensible elders, capable women, even clever kids. Shouldn't you thank me properly?"

Zhang Su spread his hands and teased.

"Zhang Big Brother, you're talking nonsense—look at that brat, what can he do besides eat? And those old folks, can they even work? They struggle to walk two steps. Back then they could beg for compensation by faking injuries on the road—what can they do now?"

Wang Xin actually looked down on these people; if all twelve were real laborers, he'd be grinning from ear to ear.

"Wang Boss, don't think that way. Our old bones aren't as useless as you say—we can carry water, spread fertilizer, no problem. We'll do more work than we eat."

The elder in front, though long subjected to inhuman treatment, possessed stronger mental resilience than most, and quickly recovered, beginning to promote himself; those around him nodded vigorously, recounting their past labor back home before the disaster.

Zhang Su slapped Wang Xin's arm. "See? This time your United Village hit the jackpot—you didn't even break a sweat, yet you gained twelve laborers and twenty percent of the spoils. Even I'm jealous!"

Wang Xin smiled helplessly. He was, after all, the boss of a survivor camp housing fifty to sixty people—now it felt like a refugee shelter.

Wang Xin's face tightened, his eyes squinting as he pleaded: "Look, food may not be scarce now, but it's not worthless either, Big Brother Zhang. Don't be like this—right now, only our two factions control this stretch of North Dong Town. Show a little mercy to your younger brother, please."

After handling the people, the next task was inventorying the spoils—no need for Zhang Su to personally oversee it; his subordinates quickly organized all items taken from Beitaizi Camp.

"Guizi, I'll take these people back to your village. Later, send someone to unload two thousand jin of grain—that's your full payment for this mission. As for the rest of the stuff left at Xiang Zhuangzi…"

Zhang Su knew these weren't all of Xiang Zhuangzi's stockpiles, but he had no time for a slow sweep—he'd send people later once he finished his immediate tasks, just needed to warn Wang Xin first, or the United Village would surely come too.

"Ah, that? No problem. Five hundred jin of grain per gun—I'll give you four."

"Hehe…" Wang Xin rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, pointing behind Zhang Su. "Big Brother Zhang, you guys already have those high-tech automatic rifles—just give us some of those old muskets."

"Aren't there still West Big Camp Village?"

Based on the twenty percent spoils split, twelve muskets remained—he could reasonably expect two. But since Zhang Su hadn't offered them, he didn't dare insist.

"Correct. What do you want to trade for?"

Living in the countryside, food reserves were always plentiful—whether at Beitaizi Camp or now at Xiang Zhuangzi, they never lacked to eat: rice, flour, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes—combined, over three thousand jin.

Zhang Su asked bluntly.

Zhang Su waved his hand and agreed to Wang Xin's request, but the price was downright exploitative.

"No no no, our United Village won't touch a thing—it's all yours, Big Brother, hehe…" Wang Xin was quick to comply, waving his hands, then shifted tone: "But I don't want so much grain. Big Brother Zhang, you said earlier we could trade for equivalent goods, right?"

Luckily, the village had two functional electric tricycles, easily loading the grain onto them.

Zhang Su didn't respond immediately, instead expressing doubt.

"West Big Camp Village guards that precious bridge and never interacts with us—what do we care about them… uh, the guns?"

Wang Xin couldn't stop thinking about the muskets.

Zhang Su thought for a moment. "You don't want grain, right? Then here's the deal: I'll keep one musket, give you the rest, and you send me a ton of coal from your village."

The coal seized from Niuziquan Town wasn't much; winter was about to set in officially, temperatures would drop further, and heating reserves had to be secured.

The United Village also needed coal badly, but Wang Xin believed arming his villagers mattered more—he gritted his teeth and accepted Zhang Su's deal.

With everything settled, the two RVs drove away from Xiang Zhuangzi, leaving behind bullet holes, corpses, and collapsed houses—anyone who came here later would know what had happened.

At 10: 0 p. ., Zhang Su's group returned safely to Tianma Island; on the way back, Yu Wen compiled the battle's consumption report.

Four hundred sixty-two bullets expended, one hand grenade, one incendiary rod—and most importantly, one Thunder Bomb.

"Hey, Su Ge, there are fewer zombie corpses on the road!"

As the RV climbed the mountain road, Zheng Xinyu pointed to the roadside illuminated by the headlights.

"They must've been bored in camp and moved some down—haha, they're all here!"

As he spoke, Zhang Su noticed the staff on duty standing at the Shanmen entrance, lined up along the path to welcome them.

"Big Brother, you blew your own cover! You wanted to imitate Guan Yu drinking wine while beheading Hua Xiong—go check the food, it's stone cold, hahaha!"

Zhao Dezhu saw the RV packed full of grain sacks, realized the battle was a resounding victory, and joked cheerfully.

Zhang Su stepped down, slapped the truck bed. "We got delayed picking up coal from United Village, but Beitaizi Camp is fully dealt with—we're safe now!"

"Oh! Yeah!"

"Great!"

With the hidden enemies eliminated, the heavy weight lifted from everyone's hearts.

Zhang Su noticed Yu Qing standing among the crowd with a complex expression, suddenly remembered something, and spoke: "Yu Qing, your Thunder Bomb saved us—if not for it, Yu Wen and I would've been ambushed and seriously injured. And we rescued twelve slaves from Beitaizi Camp—now they're all laborers in United Village!"

"What? Beitaizi Camp held that many slaves?"

"Damn, they're truly monstrous!"

"Only because Brother Su is principled—if we'd met someone ruthless, they'd've been boiled alive, not a hair left!"

The group paused, stunned, then turned to Zhang Su with newfound respect.

True restraint isn't mercy toward enemies—it's avoiding the innocent. In this apocalypse, doing even this much was the best one could manage; everyone understood Zhang Su's dilemma.

"Enough standing around—hot food, let's eat!"

At Zhang Su's order, Tianma Island buzzed with life again.

After the disaster, nearly everyone avoided staying up past nightfall unless on watch duty—lack of spiritual entertainment made people drowsy. But tonight was different: eating, drinking, noise lasted until 2 a. . before slowly fading.

(End of Chapter)